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A Little Hot Mess – The Art of Melting Crayons

I believe in little messes. You know when your life is like “eh,” and you’re hanging in the middle of it? It’s like that Francesca Battistelli song, where she loses her keys, and her life basically has the stench equivalent to an ogre.

Well, when I see melted crayon paintings on Pinterest, that’s what I think of – little messes. But, I want a little mess of my own. Correction – I want to be reminded to stick around during little messes. Henceforth, I remade that ever so popular melted crayon fiasco.

I didn’t want just another regular waterfall of wax, which is why I chose the more splotched rendition of this project. Why go the easy route? I loved how some pinners put down paper, leaving a section empty of wax. I decided to outline the word “faith” in cursive using parchment paper (as I thought this would resist the wax). Since double-sided tape would not stick to the poster board, I lathered the parchment paper in glue until that sucker was stuck real great (said in sassy dialect).

Then, I unwrapped all of the colors I liked from my crayon box, which is not as easy as it used to be. How come when I was a kid, it seemed like crayon label would always peel off, but now that I need to peel it, it’s clingier than a middle school relationship.

I took my poster board and crayons out to the middle of my garage and got out my handy dandy blow-dryer (May God always bless my blow-dryer for being there when I wake up with frizzy hair <3). I put my crayon over the poster board, held the hairdryer over it, and, alas, the biggest little mess from anyone on the planet. Crayons melt really quickly, by the way. Before I knew it, HOT WAX FLUNG UNDER MY NAILS, ON THE GARAGE WALLS, AND ALL OVER MY PARCHMENT PAPER CURSIVE.

Warning: Hot wax is really hot. So, between the combination of the scalding wax and the hairdryer blowing everything everywhere, my parchment paper flew up (guess it wasn’t as stuck great as expected), and hot wax flew across the paper like paint splatters. After the wax dried, I painted “faith” over the top just to teach that wax who was boss.

If you like to make crayon art, please help me out. For the average person, this seemed nearly impossible. The wax flew everywhere because of my hairdryer, and hot wax piled high under my nails. I personally would not retry this pin again because of the severe emotional scarring that the outcome had on my life. If you plan on making melted crayon art, it may be best to try the typical waterfall poster. Up to you on if you want hot wax everywhere, though.

Disclaimer: My nails were not harmed in the making of this project.

Before painting or cutting anything, I always write it out. This makes DIY writing so much easier than just free-handing with a paint brush.

After sad attempts using double-sided tape, it looks like it’s time to break out the glue sticks.

Crayon labels are difficult to peel, so I used scissors to cut into them, giving somewhere to start the process.

I spent about 45 minutes on this project altogether, which isn’t very long!

Be sure to angle the hairdryer in a way that produces the quality and texture of wax that you are looking for.